


The Blackest Night

by therune



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-16
Updated: 2012-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-03 19:04:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/384819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Blackest Night could have turned out for the Rogues</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blackest Night

Losing the ones you love hurts.  
Whether it´s your mother, your father, brother, sister, friend or lover - the pain is nearly unbearable. Your heart shatters into tiny pieces.  
It´s a shock, it was all a mistake! They can´t be dead! No, not them! Not him, not her! They survived, they must have, oh god, please no! They have to be alive, they have to be well, because otherwise....it just can´t be true. No.  
You´re mad. Mad at the world, society, family, friends, at those who died and then yourself.  
You´re worthless, why couldn´t you prevent this? Why didn´t you save her? Why did you let him die?  
It´s all your fault! Why weren´t you faster, why weren´t you cleverer, why weren´t you braver? You´re furious, you rage, you want to scream, blame the world, blame yourself and tear it to shreds. Damn it all!  
But ... maybe it doesn´t have to be that way... what if...just what if...maybe....and you hope a miracle comes your way. You´d do everything to save them, you´d trade places and die in their stead, if it only were possible. There has to be a way out of this!  
But there isn´t. There´s nothing left but darkness and despair. You´re all alone....and you deserve it. Nothing makes sense anymore...The sun isn´t as bright anymore, warmth has left this world along with love and hope. Only the night remains, with dreams full of torment and screams. There´s no use...it´s over.  
And you have to accept that. The world didn´t stop spinning, the sun goes down to rise again. You may have lost them, but they´re in a better place now. They´re truly free and will look lovingly down on you from the heavens until it´s your time to join them. They are at rest, they are at peace. You love them.

Only it´s all a lie.  
The dead walk the earth, clad in black as the night and white as bone. They scream, their faces caught in anguish. There is no better place. There is no rest. There is only the hunger. More....we need more! Did you really think it´d be over like that? We deserve a second chance! We suffered, we died.. and you? We think it is time to trade places.  
The dead walk the earth. Their claws cut the air and they cut through you. They hold your heart in their hands....figuratively and literally. And they crush it.  
And you thought it would all be over now....

Len walks through the streets of mayhem and chaos. People screaming in fear and pain, there´s fire and there´s them.  
There are the monsters who pretend to be your lost ones. Monsters with the face and the voice of his parents. They promise lies as sweet as honey and they hunger. He runs, can´t afford to lose time. Their screams ring in his head and he runs faster, doesn´t want the memories to catch up. And there´s her. A monster with the Lisa´s face, Lisa´s body, with her voice and her eyes.  
"Lenny?" she asks sweetly, "big brother, is it you?"  
And he stops dead in his tracks.  
"It´s me, sis."  
"I found you! I´ve been searching all over town for you! I´m so cold, Lenny, so cold."  
His heart, so cold and lonely, isn´t cold at all. It burns with sorrow, with pain and that little spark he refuses to call hope.  
"Lisa-" he doesn´t know what to say or what to do.  
Slowly she comes closer. "You haven´t changed at all, big brother. I´m so glad I found you."  
His brain yells at him to run, to attack, to save himself. His heart says to stay, to help her, to save her.  
The lump of ice in his chest melts away. "Oh, sis, I missed you so much."  
There are tears in his eyes. "I never forgave myself, what happened...I couldn´t...I-"  
"That´s okay, Lenny," she inches closer and smiles with too much teeth, "I never forgave you either."  
She lunges forward, sharp blades replacing her compassion. He barely dodges her attack and rolls to the side.  
"I hate you," she says, with much more emotion a dead person should have, " he killed me and you weren´t there to protect me! It´s your fault! I died because of you! Why didn´t you do anything, why didn´t you help me? I needed you and you weren´t there!  
He comes to his feet and faces her. He wants to defend himself, it wasn´t his fault, but the words won´t come.  
"Lisa, I-"  
She leaps again, a movement once so graceful now tainted with ferocity and hate. He almost evades her, but her skates slice open his leg. The pain is a distraction and he manages to point his gun at her.  
"Shoot me, Lenny! Pull the trigger, shoot me! Kill me again and condemn me to misery and pain! Do it!" she taunts.  
"I´m sorry," he says and cries.  
But he stays still, he doesn´t shoot and she laughs. Her face is contorted into a spiteful grimace.  
She is not his sister. She is a corpse pretending to be a dead girl.  
But his heart makes his hand weigh a ton. He can´t do it.  
She´s his little sister.  
The monster prepares for the last attack.  
He won´t survive if he doesn´t move, doesn´t attack, doesn´t save himself.  
He can´t move.  
"I love you, sis"

The skies are in uproar. Icy winds tear at him and every raindrop feels like a punch. He´s cold, like he has never been before. Thunder roars in the distance and the clouds, thick with rain and darkness, come closer. The lightning strikes and thunder cracks his whip. He´s drenched in rain and tears. A golden light shines out of his eyes and he trembles. He´s afraid, so terribly afraid. He thought that nothing could be more terrifying, more horrible than what he has seen, than what he already has done. And he´s wrong, because the worst is yet to come.  
This blackest of all nights isn´t ending, there is no sun on the horizon, only more wind and cold. He wants to fly away, to leave death and madness behind but something keeps him. Something is there.  
Someone is there.  
"It´s a shame you can´t see the stars," a kind voice says and Mark´s heart pounds heavy and shameful in his chest.  
"This isn´t happening," he says, his voice more timid than it has ever been. He turns around and sees a monster clad in black and white. The rain splatters on a set of glasses, "You´re dead."  
"Wrong and right, brother mine," the monster with Clyde´s face says smilingly.  
Mark´s shaking. He´s afraid, so terribly afraid.  
"Bu then, you always had a way of saying lies that were true. You said your brother died that night in the observatory. You said you got the wand that day. Something terrifying happened that day. Of course, you went to see me that day and found me, dead from a heart attack. And you found plans on how to build a weather wand and experienced its terrifying power. But.... of course, you went to the observatory. You saw me, you killed me. You stole the wand. Or was it the other way around, my memory seems foggy these days."  
"You´re not real," Marks pushes the words past his lips, "you´re dead."  
"Well, little brother.... one thing is indeed true, the other ...not so much. Do you know which one?"  
"It´s-" and Mark breaks off. Is he hallucinating? Is this happening? It can´t be!  
"Haunting, isn´t it - not to know what´s real anymore. But don´t get all excited just yet, I have something to show you."  
Mark is struggling to stay in the air. His control is slipping, fading away. If he doesn´t watch out, he could plummet down to earth. This had to be dream, a horrifying nightmare.  
"He wanted to meet you," Clyde says and looks into Mark´s eyes that glow with golden unearthly light.  
He is holding a child in his arms.  
"You were right, he does have my eyes."  
And Marks falls.

He hides. Fire cleanses all, but not this madness. The horror gets caught in flames, dies a horrible death and out of the ashes it rises again - still black, still hungry, still mad. He´s not a runner, but he can´t fight anymore. He can´t stop them, he´s helpless.  
Fire casts its loving, warm light upon him. It dances and laughs. It draws him closer and closer  
"Watch it, son, or you´ll get burned."  
Mick doesn´t trust his ears. He turns around to stare in the face of his father.  
"He´s right, honey, fire´s hot. Its touch is painful."  
"Mommy, fire hurts. It hurt so much."  
Mick screams.  
"When fire touches you, it eats you," his father says, "your skin crackles, your lungs burn from the smoke, your eyes can´t see and it hurts! Fire devours you with its grip. Its hunger grows and grows, nothing can satisfy it. Not the house. Not you. Not your family. You hear them crying out, screaming, suffocating. You see their figures in the smoke. You see them dying. Fire eats everything, bones, meat and skin. Fire eats your hands, your legs, your eyes. Fire eats your heart."  
Mick stares at the monsters.  
"You made the fire eat us. And now, we eat you."

He´s a coward, always has been. He just fights if there is no other way. There are plenty of ways through the maze of mirrors. They can´t find him here. No one will. This place between places is his domain. He should be safe. His heart races, threatens to leap out of his chest. His legs shake and his sinks to the ground. He can rest for bit. They won´t find him. They can´t find him.  
"It doesn´t matter whether you turn left or right. We´re all mad here. Mad for you."  
"Who are you?" Evan screams and faces a mirror. Only that this is not his reflection in the mirror. The same clothes, the same stance, but the face - that is not his face! That is not him!  
He is the Mirror Master, he controls this place! No one can do this to him.  
No one, except: "May I introduce myself? I believe we haven´t met. Sam Scudder. And you must be the impostor who stole my life´s work." Scudder´s face is a travesty, gray and ashen and too real for a reflection. Evan takes a step back and Scudder takes one forward, out of the mirror.  
"Don´t bother, I can find you. I´ll always find you. I´m the original, you´re a copy. A poor copy. Did you hate your own face so much you had to take mine?"  
"Shut up!"  
"Of course, if I were you and had to look at the face of my parents´murderer every time I looked in the mirror - I would want to change, too."  
Evan grips the gun tighter and runs, dives into mirrors and back into the place between places. Scudder cackles and follows him, faster and faster.  
"A poor copy," he say and appears in front of Evan. He´s just playing with him.  
"Give up, already. I´m better than you ever could be. And... I´m not alone. I brought friends who are just dying to meet you."  
His grin is sickening as two people step out of a big mirror in front of Evan.  
"Meet your son for the first time," Sam addresses them and smiles.  
Evan recognizes them. He shot the man, the woman killed herself. It´s all his fault.  
These are his parents. He brought death to them on their first meeting.  
Evan stumbles backwards, unable to face them. He falls into ice, unable to move. He is trapped, unable to escape.

He´s cold, he´s frightened and he runs like he never has before. His shoes leave little sparks behind, little traces of his courage. His masks cracks and he just wants it all to be over, he just wants to be at home. He wants his mom to tell him everything´s going to be okay, he wants his dad to protect him. Instead he runs through the rain, his clothes a smidgen of color in the dark. He mustn´t draw attention. He has to be quiet. He´s so afraid.  
"You´re doing it all wrong, punk" a voice says into his right ear and he whirls around, clutching his gun.  
He sees only two rows of white teeth and jumps back, heart pounding painfully.  
"I see fear in your eyes, I see despair and terror in your stance. I see you shaking," the figure mocks. It´s a mess of black and white stripes until it steps back reveals itself to be "The Trickster, the magnificent, the brilliant and the one and only Trickster, himself - me!"  
"You´re dead!" Axel shouts.  
"Or so you think," it replies.  
It´s one of the monsters, clad in black and white and with the face of a dead person.  
Axel tells himself to calm down, but it doesn´t work.  
He wanted the thrill of the hunt, of adventure and of crime, but no zombie apocalypse! This is too much!  
"Go away!" he yells.  
"There´s fear in your voice," the monster says. The smile on its face is an insult to James Jesse. It´s wrong.  
"You´re not Trickster material," the monster says, playing casually with a yo-yo, "you show real emotion. You run away. You try to sneak. A trickster is always in the spotlight, never quiet, never afraid! You´re a boy, nothing more. Were you on your way home to your mama? I bet you were. You´re not ready."  
"Stop!" Axels fires the gun. It hits the monster, but it doesn´t provoke a reaction besides "You stole my stuff...again."  
The grin turns feral and threatening.  
"You´re nothing. I´m better than you. You´re worthless."  
He just wants to go home. He prays to a god he doesn´t believe in. Please...  
It stretches skeletal fingers towards him.  
"I told you what would happen if I caught you calling yourself the Trickster again."  
There´s blood thirst in its voice.  
"We play patty-cake."  
Axel screams, and too soon the screaming stops.

Owen observes. He has to be here.  
He has to find him.  
"Dad?" he calls.  
"Owen? Owen!" someone answers.  
It is a cruel parody of his father with hands drenched in hot, blood. Its face shows a tender smile, fatherly and proud, like only his dad could.  
"I´ve missed you," he says and Owen believes him.  
He runs towards him. Too late he notices the snarl.  
Too late he notices the boomerang in his father´s hand.  
Too late he notices that it wasn´t his father, but a monster in disguise.  
His life had been quick and too short.  
Death grants him the same mercy.

He wishes he were deaf. He wishes he had never had the operation.  
He wishes it would stop, but it doesn´t.  
The screams, the pain, the agony, the killing - it goes on and on!  
Piper curls himself into a ball, trying to drone out sounds but it´s futile. He hears the attacks, he hears skin breaking, bones breaking, he hears insane laughter, he hears mocking, he hears people crying and he hears how the crying stops.  
He´s trapped in this cage he willingly entered. He can´t get out. And the monsters are coming. He hears them approaching. They come closer and closer, leaving death and blood in their wake.  
"I told you, he´s useless." a voice says. He recognizes it instantly, but that can´t be. He glances upwards and sees his father, clad in a tuxedo standing outside his cell.  
"I don´t know what we did wrong with him...we gave him everything he wanted. Fame, money, the best education..."  
"It´s not our fault, dear," Osgood Rathaway says and wraps his arm tenderly around his wife like he did when they were alive,  
"some kids are just born rotten. We had the misfortune of having two freaks in the family."  
"I am so ashamed he´s our son. What a big disappointment!"  
"Be quiet, please just stop," Piper begs.  
"And then he murdered us. Typical. We should have seen it coming."  
"I didn´t do that!" Piper screams, "I was framed! I didn´t do it, I´m innocent!"  
"Well, if you´re so innocent, why are you locked up in prison?"  
"I didn´t murder you!"  
Osgood´s face transforms into a hideous smirk.  
"Are you sure? Or is that what they told you?"  
"You´re a murdering freak!" his mother says, "you were born wrong, we tried to fix you, you became a criminal and we tried to help you, you supposedly reformed, we tried to support you and how did you thank us? You murdered us. Thank god your poor sister didn´t have witness it."  
"What happened to Jerrie?" There´s a blank spot in his memory. Where is she? Did he ...forget her? Did he block her out? Why hasn´t he seen her in years? His head hurts.  
"She was with us in the house. The sonic explosion killed her in her sleep. Another death on your conscience. I wonder how you can still keep going on after killing all those people."  
"I didn´t do that, I´m innocent!"  
"Let him, my dear, I think he´s hallucinating. We´d better call someone, get him into the asylum again. "  
"I´m not crazy!"  
"That´s what they always say."  
The door to the cell opens. Piper tries to get to his feet, but it´s too late.  
"Why did you kill me, big brother?"  
"I...I didn´t....I´m so sorry."  
And the show stops.


End file.
